Return to Sender
by ClockRepair
Summary: Hinata sends a (half) naked photo of herself to the wrong person. Anxiety and embarrassment ensues. Thank goodness there's Sai to alleviate the tension. Sasuhina.


**Summary:** Hinata sends a (half) naked photo of herself to the wrong person. Anxiety and embarrassment ensues. Thank goodness there's Sai to alleviate the tension. Sasuhina.

* * *

Hinata and Sai were sitting under their favourite tree in the courtyard when the tortured artist sighed loudly enough that Hinata felt compelled to look at him despite his strict rules about remaining in position during a sketching session.

"You know you're quite lovely, Hinata," he said, pencil in hand. "I'm tired of having to constantly draw you like this."

He broke another one of his rules when he turned over his sketchbook to reveal a half-finished drawing of Hinata in which all of the detail and care stopped when it came to her clothes: an oversized hoodie and baggy capris. He flipped through previous pages of his sketches of Hinata in similar outfits.

"What's wrong with the way I look?"

"There's nothing wrong per se, but you often dress yourself like you're about to paint your house."

Hinata was going to comment on his fashion advice, especially when he was partial to crop tops even during Konoha's harshest winters, but she thought her best friend would appreciate the sentiment of a picture being worth a thousand words.

"Sai, if you were a straight man, what would your opinion be on this picture?" She asked, handing him her cellphone.

"Ugh you just made me shudder because I never want to be straight," he replied, before taking a look. "Ooooh damn!"

Hinata felt a little smug for impressing her usually blasé friend.

"Hinata, this a great example of your ability to pose but that tan bra and matching underwear is doing nothing for you."

She scoffed. "Is that really all you have to say?"

Lately everyone and anyone wanted to give Hinata their two cents about her wardrobe. Her family was constantly policing her image, as they claimed the daughter of one of the oldest clans in Konoha should not be dressed like she was ready to pull out weeds. Her family ultimately tolerated her clothing choices as long as she wasn't gallivanting around town half naked, they couldn't complain about much. However, self-doubt had developed a few days ago when she was heading down the stairs with Ino and Sakura a couple of steps ahead. The two girls were happily chatting about the latest episode of their favourite show and were completely oblivious to the stares of some freshman on the lower level.

"Whoa are they allowed to wear shorts that short?"

"Hey, man, I'm not complaining!"

All eyes were on Ino and Sakura as they rounded the corner and, once they were gone, the boys took one look at Hinata and looked visibly disappointed.

 _Use your imagination…_ Hinata thought bitterly to herself although her red face said otherwise.

The last straw was when Hanabi burst through her bedroom door and announced that she was going to the mall and asked Hinata if she wanted her to get her anything. A simple question, really, but Hinata had had enough.

Puberty had hit Hinata hard when she turned thirteen and she found herself with more curves, breasts, and bum than she could handle. She was naturally shy and didn't know how to dress herself. Whereas the other girls knew how to emphasize, style, and contour their assets, Hinata only knew how to camouflage. But she was more than this frumpy, bag lady image that everyone had associated herself with. She was eighteen and was on the cusp of womanhood, goddammit, and she was going to start embracing it.

Hinata obviously had never taken a (semi-) nude photo before and didn't know what to do with it. Or if she had done it right. Showing Sai the photo was more about asking his opinion rather than proving him wrong.

Sai lightly slapped her arm. "Relax. I was trying to be funny. You look good. Better than good. Who knew all of this," he pointed at the screen and then waved his hand toward her persons. "Was under all of this."

"Why thank you. I guess you can say I felt inspired lately."

"You totally have to send me that picture."

She paused. "You want a picture of ME? Or are you talking about another picture?"

"You took a selfie when you have me, Sai, an artist, who draws portraits of you almost everyday. Do you have any idea how much this hurts? Especially when you've been making me draw you in sweatshirts and hoodies for years!"

"You were the one who said you needed a model AND you said my clothes was a good way for you to practice drawing fabric and shadows."

"And you've been a great help. I've never denied that. But I have art critics telling me that my drawings are so realistic that they think it's going to come to life!" He said, smacking his sketchbook. "Imagine what I can do to you!"

"You're such a little weirdo, Sai." She said it lightheartedly but her eyes were trailing down his chest when Hinata realized she was being rude and quickly looked back at him.

Unfortunately for her, Sai saw where her eyes were going. He glanced down at himself and looked back at her. "Are you alluding to my crop tops because I'll let you know that I have an excellent body and would be providing a disservice if I didn't show this off. And now that I know you have a killer bod too, we need to commemorate it."

Hinata laughed. If there was one person whom she trusted with the photo, it would be her best friend. Besides, it should be okay since Sai's phone and sketchbook would be the last place people would look for naked photos. Most people avoided her friend's things altogether after some bully rifled through his early sketches during sophomore year… let's just say Sai drew a good portrait but he also practiced drawing some pretty disturbing images that were, like the art critics said, rather realistic.

Also, Hinata's face wasn't even in the photo. She had heard enough horror stories from late night television programs about the dangers of sending nudes to do that. What was the worse thing that could happen?

"Okay, fine, but you better draw me like one of your French girls," she teased, while crafting the new message.

Sai sighed dreamily. "Comparing me to Leo is the best compliment you could have given me," he said before looking at his phone.

And he kept looking at it.

"Did you receive it?"

Sai shook his head. "Maybe your phone is acting up again. Is it still loading?"

Hinata went to check and she nearly fainted when she saw what she had done.

"…!"

Sai couldn't register facial cues like the rest of his peers but he was able to understand when his friend was on the verge of having a heart attack.

"Hinata, what's wrong?"

He didn't get verbal response as Hinata shoved her phone into his face. He went cross-eyed for a split second before his vision focused and he became equally stunned as his friend. A real feat considering his face was usually an unreadable mask.

"Oh my God… did you just?"

"Send the most popular boy in school a picture of myself in my underwear?" She asked meekly. "Yeah…"

When Hinata was going through her contacts list, she hadn't clicked on Sai's number, but the name of her ill-tempered calculus tutor whose name was alphabetically next to his: Sasuke Uchiha.

Hinata laid back against the grass, pulling the hood of her top over her head, and tightly pulled the drawstrings. There weren't enough clothes in the world to hide herself in.

* * *

Sai had managed to coax Hinata to leave the courtyard before they became a spectacle. For all they knew, Gai-sensei, the over joyous gym teacher, could be doing his usual rounds on the track and field and wouldn't hesitate to abate Hinata's youthful problems once he saw how distressed she was behaving. And once the green beast found that he couldn't relate to the situation, he'd probably inquire his teaching assistant, Rock Lee. What a mess that'd be.

The two of them were now in Sai's bedroom. The boy was a minimalist so with Hinata sprawled out on his bed, burying her face into his pillow, there was nowhere for the boy to sit. He was stuck sitting on the floor as he went through her phone. Sai cared for Hinata, he really did, but he also thought the whole situation was just a teensy bit amusing.

"The last thing Sasuke texted you was, 'The problem set I gave you this week is harder. Want to know what your answer is for number 4.' Apparently your answer was…" his voice cracked as he tried to continue. "Your boobs."

Hinata screamed into his pillow.

He proceeded to go through her contacts list.

"Hey, it could have been worse. You know whom you _could_ have sent that picture to but thankfully didn't? Suigetsu. Y'know, that white haired guy in our biology class that always chopped up the frog limbs that I swore is going to grow up to be a serial killer? The creep would probably take that nude selfie as a declaration of love and he'll ask you to look at his sword collection." Sai put on a fake voice and tried to do his best Suigetsu impression. "'Hey Hinata, wanna see how far I can thrust my blade?' No? Not funny? You're right. That was too much, sorry. But hey, you could have also accidentally texted… Mr. Sarutobi? Why the hell do you have our old principal's phone number anyway?"

Hinata raised her head and looked at her friend who was trying his best to make her laugh at the situation, but was just making it worse.

"My father thought he'd be a good reference for college applications. But who knows if I'll even graduate now!" she cried, flopping herself onto her back to stare blankly at Sai's ceiling fan. "I don't know how I'm going to face Sasuke during our next tutoring session. I already can't make extended eye contact with him. I'm going to fail calculus without his help."

"Maybe it's not too late to send an "Oops, wrong person" text. I highly doubt Sasuke will care anyway. He'll probably delete it and won't even bring it up. He must get loads of pictures that are racier, not to mention lacier, than your boring beige bra."

Hinata ignored that he was making another dig at her fashion choices, as her lackluster wardrobe had been a touchy subject all week. "But how do you know for sure? What if he reacts negatively or makes fun of me?"

Sai brought his face uncomfortably close to Hinata's. She could still see the ceiling fan's blades rotating behind his head as he said gravely, "When has he ever showed interest in women, Hinata? I've been hoping that the Uchiha's secretly gay or at least bi so I can rub it in Ugly's face (Sakura) that I have more of a chance with him than she does."

The thought that her best friend was interested in her tutor definitely distracted her. She sat up so suddenly that they nearly bumped heads.

"You're crushing on Sasuke?"

Sai never laughed but he came close to it when she asked him that. "Pffft no. He's way too emotionless and that's saying a lot coming from me. You can't have two stoic people in a relationship. It's too quiet. And boring. But anyone with functioning eyes can admit that Sasuke is quite attractive. Look at Ino: she can only see out of one eye because she insists on growing out her side bangs (an awful decision by the way) so whenever Sasuke's around, she nearly bursts an eye vessel trying to look at him."

"I guess you're right…"

Sai perked up and comically jumped onto the spot beside her. "What? You think Sasuke could be secretly gay too? Or at least bi?" Hinata giggled as he shoved her phone towards her. "Quick! Let's text Ugly and tell her that she has no chance after all."

The light and humorous atmosphere that Sai had tried so hard to create for his friend was fleeting as tension quickly filled up the room. On Hinata's phone, three telltale dots were demonstrating that Sasuke was sending a reply.

What was even more shocking was that Sasuke sent an image of his own.

"Th-this…wasn't what I was expecting," said Hinata.

"Yeah, me neither." Sai laid back onto his pillow, obviously displeased. "I thought he'd be at least shirtless. At least you have nothing to worry about, Hinata. Seriously."

Sai was his usual nonplussed self. He pulled out one of many sketchbooks to work on whatever was his latest project, seemingly forgetting the embarrassing debacle that Hinata had gotten herself into, which was kind of his fault by the way. Despite her friend's calm demeanor, Hinata couldn't shake off her worries. She glanced back down at the image Sasuke had sent her.

In reply, Sasuke had sent a picture of his legs, as they were propped up on a coffee table. His legs were crossed at the ankles and Hinata and Sai got a good look at his navy blue socks with little red and white fans knitted at the base of the foot.

They were very cute socks, obviously hand knitted, yet…

"What the hell does this mean?" cried Hinata.

* * *

Sai had managed to reassure Hinata to "calm the fuck down" until she got home that night and Sasuke had asked her (through e-mail this time) to reschedule their next tutoring session from next week to tomorrow. She didn't even bother informing her friend about it because she knew whatever he said would not be able to reduce her anxiety. She lied in bed for hours not being able to sleep with one paranoid thought branching off and leading to even crazier theories. What if Sasuke showed that picture to people and it spread around the school? What if Sasuke blackmailed her with it to get secrets from the Hyuuga family? Did the Hyuugas even have anything worth blackmailing? What if he added the picture to some weird slideshow he made out of the countless sexts he received from other girls (guys too maybe?) and just… LOOKED at it for his general pleasure? With these thoughts swimming in her head, before she knew it, the sun had come up. Tomorrow was now today.

Hinata went to school feeling incredibly high strung. So much so that during fifth period P.E., she broke the school record for the longest time holding onto a pull-up bar. When the bell rang, signalling the end of the period, Gai-sensei had to pry her fingers off of the bar and applauded her tenacity.

Hinata would have held onto that bar all day if she didn't have another choice.

For one thing, the eldest Hyuuga daughter really did need help in calculus and could not miss a single tutoring session.

Leave it to binomial theorems and trigonometric functions to vaguely divert Hinata's worries as Sasuke was sitting right beside her. After all, it felt like a lost cause because she'd look at the questions before her and try to refrain from tapping her pencil against her notebook, which would notify Sasuke that she was completely lost. However, the fact that the Uchiha prodigy had a scandalous picture of her and was seemingly not doing or saying anything about it made her so nervous she was bouncing her leg up and down. She took a side-glance of him and, even worse, he was checking his phone.

Hinata tried concentrating on her work again.

"Hinata," Sasuke said slowly. It made her shiver. "Are you okay?"

"Yep," she said, forcing a smile on her face. "What makes you think otherwise?"

"First of all, you're tapping your pencil which means you're trying to figure out what to do but you don't. Second, you're shaking your leg so much the table is vibrating." She stopped shaking her leg as soon as he pointed it out. She never had that nervous habit before. "And not that I mind or anything, but you've made even less eye contact with me than usual."

Hinata forced herself to look in his direction and her eyes managed to land on his chin. It was progress. When they met up in the local library, where most people their age seldom visited and is why Sasuke chose the location, she could only look at his chest.

He sighed. "Is it because you got a D on your last pop quiz? I told you that Ibiki-sensei doesn't usually do pop quizzes and his formal tests are worth far more of your grade."

She didn't respond.

"At least you passed? You failed the last assessment so you're slowly improving."

Hinata met her limit and had to turn back to her work. She could literally feel herself burning from embarrassment, her body slowly growing damp from sweat, and she cursed her pale skin for merely emphasizing the shade of crimson she was turning. Although she could be thankful for her long hair that she used to shield herself from her tutor's piercing gaze. She could literally feel herself folding inwards.

"Hinata?" He sounded panicked as he shuffled in his seat. "You'll do better, okay? I don't mind tutoring a Hyuuga, really. Even if your cousin Neji glares at me a lot when he picks you up. I'll help you pass calculus and you won't have to worry about your father breathing down your neck about your grades. Trust me, I know how that feels and I'm number one in the class. Not to rub it in or anything. You're just in capable hands. Wait, that sounded wrong. I mean – UGH!"

She could see from her peripherals that he was running his hand through his hair.

 _Oh my God_ , Hinata thought as it hit her. _He thinks I'm about to cry_.

It certainly did explain Sasuke's talkativeness. The self-proclaimed genius normally didn't talk much about himself to anyone yet he just admitted to facing familial pressure about his grades and future? She could have guessed that judging from how strict his father was, but to hear it was different. And the fact Sasuke thought she was going to cry certainly explained why he was so flustered. She heard rumours that Sasuke was a bit of a mama's boy and he became quite distressed when women's feelings were hurt. It was surprisingly how none of the other girls (*cough* Karin *cough*) that fancied the Uchiha had used this against him but maybe not many people were willing to believe in Sasuke's (somewhat sweet) Achilles' heel.

It made her laugh.

"Hinata?" It was the first time she looked at him face-to-face and it was like she forgot she was supposed to be nervous. "You ARE okay, right?"

As sadistic as it sounded, Hinata felt a little relieved that the usually unperturbed Sasuke Uchiha was so unsure of himself.

"I am. Sort of."

Sasuke let out the nervous breath he was holding now that he saw she wasn't on the brink of a mental breakdown. "So what's wrong with you?"

"It's complicated," she finally said.

"Like pressure from your family? From yourself? Worries about the future and what you're doing with your life? That kind of stuff?"

"Not really." She started fiddling with her index fingers. Wow now there was a habit she hadn't done since middle school. "It's complicated because of something that's happened between me and… you."

"What like you fell in love with me?"

His complete and utter bluntness, not to mention how uncaring he sounded, surprised her so much that Hinata disagreed so loudly that the librarian had to come over and shushed them.

"I can't believe you'd say that so easily," she whispered angrily about ten seconds later.

"I get a lot of confessions," he whispered back before he realized the librarian was probably back in her swivel chair. "It's not my fault I came to that conclusion when you say something has "happened between us". Now fess up. I'm not going to do any more guessing games."

Hinata thought of ways to bring it up in a civil manner, she really did. But with twenty four hours worth of dread, this less than ideal lead up to it, and the fact that he was just STARING at her so intensely just made her word vomit.

"I was trying to send Sai a picture of me in my underwear but then I accidentally sent it to YOU instead and then you sent me a picture of you in your socks." His eyebrows shot right up and it made Hinata divulge even faster. "I mean, what the hell does that even MEAN so I was rightfully confused and then you askedtomeetuptodayinsteadofnextweekand – !" She threw her hands into the air. "I don't know. You tell me."

The librarian came back to shush them and the wait for her to leave left a noticeable lull in their conversation.

"You sent a naked picture of yourself – ?"

"HALF naked," Hinata interrupted.

"Half naked picture of yourself… to Sai. Your best friend. Isn't he gay?"

"Yes." He had a perplexed expression and Hinata immediately grew defensive. "Not to, like, seduce him or anything. I just wanted a second opinion. That's what friends do."

"No, no," he said waving his hands. "I get it. Naruto does the same thing."

Now she was the one shooting perplexed expressions his way. "Not like that. He always sends me pictures of women from the internet to get my opinion on what's more attractive. You should see the harem he's built on The Sims. They're all blonde haired and blue eyed so I don't even know why he bothered to ask my opinion if he's going to make them all look like himself."

Naruto's narcissism and Sasuke's unknown female preferences aside, there were other pressing matters that Hinata wanted to focus on. "So did you even see the picture?"

Sasuke grabbed his phone, which made her tense. He was going to look at it NOW?

"Oh, so that was you." He was looking at his phone for a couple of second too long. Hinata cleared her throat and Sasuke put his phone back down so quickly that she thought he might have cracked the screen. "Like I said, Naruto sends me a lot of pictures of women. And girls send me a lot of photos of themselves too…When I saw that photo, I just ignored it and chalked it up to one of the usual texts I receive. I didn't even bother looking at the name of the sender."

"Okay, fine, that makes sense. But what about that picture you sent me of your feet?"

Sasuke went to check his phone and by the pinkish hue his cheeks were turning, he had to look at her picture again to figure out what she meant.

"Your name is alphabetically next to my mom's on my contacts. I guess I just made a mistake when I was trying to start a new message."

"Isn't your mom's name Mikoto? Why would it be next to mine alphabetically? And why send a picture of your feet?"

He looked uneasy. "My parents are away because my dad's a guest speaker at some conference and my mom wanted to know how the socks she knitted for me fit."

His ears turned pink.

"I was wondering why she hadn't responded but I thought it was due to bad cell service. Now I know she never got it. And yeah, I know, last question being answered: alphabetically my mom's number is next to yours is because she isn't listed as Mikoto Uchiha or Mom. She's listed as Home." Awww so he was a mama's boy. "Home. Hinata. Home. Got it? They're close together!"

She understood. She was closer to her mother than her father too, who favoured her sister Hanabi over her. And Fugaku Uchiha favoured Sasuke's brother Itachi. There was a lot to relate to and for the first time, the knowledge that Hinata had done the unthinkable and sent a (half) naked photo of herself to Sasuke Uchiha – prodigy, top tier of the high school caste system, inhumanly attractive, and so much more – didn't deter her from talking to him. But that did remind her…

"You're going to delete that photo, right?"

He didn't argue or even hesitate. Somehow that made him even more attractive and showed that he was a good person. Double points.

"Why did you take it anyway? No offence Hyuuga but you don't seem like the type to take, let alone send, naked pictures."

"Half naked," She corrected again. "And what do you mean I don't seem the type?"

Hinata was bracing herself for another critique of her clothes/appearance: "Because you dress like you don't want to be looked at" was something he could say. Or "Only girls who prance around with their butts hanging out would do something like that" was another.

"You're so shy," was his final answer and a good one at that.

"Yeah, I am. It's partly why I'm friends with Sai. He's so comfortable with himself that he makes me comfortable too. It's why I asked him what he thought about the photo and trusted him enough to send it to him."

"Oh, I get it. It's the same with Naruto. He wears so much orange and is so damn loud and pursues Sakura every goddamn day even though he has no chance."

"She likes you after all," said Hinata and Sasuke's expression changed just subtly enough that she noticed it. However, it didn't mean she understood what that meant.

"I do get confessed to a lot."

"So what DO you find attractive in a woman? And this is coming from me and not Naruto so feel free to edit out anything vulgar or potentially sexist."

"I'm offended. What kind of man do you take me for?"

Hinata grabbed his phone and enlarged the picture he took of his hand-knitted socks. "Well hopefully you're someone who's attracted to women who don't look and act exactly like his mother."

Sasuke chuckled and Hinata thought that she could get used to seeing him smile.

"Oh now I'm really offended. Did you insinuate that I'm a mama's boy?"

Hinata and Sasuke found themselves having a genuine conversation. About everything. She laughed at the things he had to say because, who knew, he was actually funny in a sarcastic way. He seemed entertained by her too. They talked for so long that the librarian had to kick them out for staying past business hours and the two had to reschedule another tutoring session to make up for today's wasted one. And truthfully? Even if they were just planning to work on her dismal understanding of calculus, Hinata was excited for another chance to see Sasuke again.

Oh man, maybe she was falling for him…

When Hinata got home, her phone buzzed, and she wasn't surprised to see it was Sasuke who had messaged her. He did send a photo though. A topless one.

"To make things fair," was what the text sent afterwards said.

Maybe he was falling for her too.

* * *

Hinata had done it. After weeks of discreet and not-so discreet flirting with the most sought after guy at their school (which left Sai exasperated because he just wanted SOMETHING to happen), Hinata felt comfortable enough to send a picture of herself to Sasuke. On purpose this time. She was standing by her full-length mirror, wearing a nice purple bra and underwear set, and was waiting for his reply. There were minuscule changes to her outerwear but there were drastic changes when it came to her underwear. After all, what mattered was on the inside, right?

Her phone vibrated on her nightstand and she snatched it right up.

"Hinata, my opinion on that picture is that you need to desperately clean your room."

She scoffed and went back to reexamine the photo. She had worked on getting the lighting and position right for five minutes and that was his answer? Yes, her phone was old so she had to zoom out more than she wanted to so you could see a lot of background, but come on…

"I'm kidding," was his next text with a winky face. "You look hot."

At least she didn't have to worry about Sasuke and Sai getting along in the near future. They definitely had the same sense of humour.

* * *

 **ClockRepair Message:** Why hello again. This story was inspired when I, like Hinata, was feeling my look and snapped a picture. My best friend was not so impressed when I showed him :P Speaking of best friends, Hinata and Sai may seem like an odd pair but I had written so many stories of a friendship between Hinata, Ino, Sakura, and Tenten. Female friendships are important but I wanted to write something different. I based Sai on an exaggerated version of my best friend and had so, so much fun writing him. I loved my version of Sasuke as some flustered mama's boy too.

Hopefully you enjoyed it too, my dear reader. Lately I've been feeling like all of the Sasuhina shippers had disappeared but I love this pairing to death. I had so much fun writing this fanfic so at least I enjoyed myself :) Also, I never took calculus but I imagine it would be hard.


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